


yeah (i'll be fine!)

by thecanary



Category: Hostel (Movies)
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Gay Character, Pre-Canon, if not its fanon i'll take to the grave, listen i swear they mention her at one point, not quite coming out ooft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 21:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16648484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecanary/pseuds/thecanary
Summary: After getting broken up with because his (ex)girlfriend reckons he's gay, Josh wants to have a bit of a rethink of things. But instead he's straight off to Europe with his buddy Paxton





	yeah (i'll be fine!)

**Author's Note:**

> kudos if you recognise where my opening scene is snatched from! title from the opening song of said thing, if that makes it any more obvious  
> also inspired by me trying to rewatch hostel but getting distracted by a line where paxton tells josh to 'get over his girl' or whatever

“I’m breaking up with you.”

Well fuck, that wasn’t where Josh was expecting a supposed date with his girlfriend to go. 

“Uh, can I ask why?” he managed to spit out.   
“Because you’re gay.”  
“I’m not gay.” It came out like a question, though he certainly wasn’t asking.   
“Josh, I love you, you’re a great guy, but it’s so obvious that you’re forcing this whole thing.”

It was hard to find a reply to that. Sure, maybe he wasn’t a perfect boyfriend, and sure maybe he wasn’t always 100% into their relationship, but that wasn’t because he was gay. Was it?

The rest of the ‘date’ went slowly, neither of them in the mood for too much conversation, but not wanting to go to a coffee shop, break up, and then leave, they soldiered on. As soon as Josh reached the last of the coffee he was drinking, he started to stand up, faking a text message. 

“Sorry, it’s Paxton, probably something about our backpacking,” he said, picking up his phone, pretending to read the text.   
“Mhm, yeah, have fun with that,” she said, not at all convinced by his lie. 

Josh wasn’t even ready to argue the point, instead he just slipped his phone back into his pocket and walked out, offering a wave to his, well, now she was his ex-girlfriend. He made his way back to his rented apartment - he was rooming with Paxton and some other guys for the time being, college over and done with but no new chapter of life started yet. That’s what the Europe trip was for; backpacking around like the idiotic Americans that they figured they had every right to be. 

“You home now, Josh?” Paxton’s voice came from the kitchen. No one else seemed to be home, or if they were, they weren’t conscious. It was still morning, and Josh’s friendship group seemed to consist of people who thought that time spent conscious that wasn’t spent drunk, high, or hungover was time wasted.   
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here.”  
“Short date.”

A question said as a statement, efficient and to the point. 

“Yeah, she, well she broke up with me.”  
“Aw shit man, who needs a bitch like that anyway?”

Josh gave a hum of agreement. Telling Paxton why he’d been broken up with wasn’t really an option, especially as Josh had somewhat taken his ex-girlfriend’s words to heart. It wasn’t like he didn’t appreciate men, and sure, sometimes he felt a bit left out of ‘guys’ moments’ and stuff like that, but until now he hadn’t thought anything of it. Now it definitely felt like he had to think on it, take his backpacking tour of Europe as some time to figure it out. That way he wouldn’t be weird about stuff while he was over in Europe, he could be himself and Paxton wouldn’t have to know a thing, but then when they got back, he could reach out to his ex, talk to her again. It seemed like a solid plan at least. 

“You booked flights yet?” Josh asked, ready to change the topic at the nearest opportunity. 

“Yeah. Didn’t book returns, figured we’ll be in Europe ‘til we’re sick of it and then book the flights home from wherever we are.”

Great. Fantastic. Not that Josh didn’t love the impulsiveness of the whole thing, but it did add that extra tone of uncertainty that made the irrational half of his brain convinced that something would go wrong. 

“Sounds good to me,” he said nonetheless. “I gotta buy my guidebook but that should be it. When are our flights?”

“Monday, it’s a fucking early one though.”  
“Oh yeah?”  
“Gotta be at the airport at 5. 5am mind you. It’s gay but it’s the cheapest flight I could get.”  
“If you say so. I won’t complain too much if it’s saving money.”  
“Cheers to that. More money to spend while we’re over there, aye.”

Josh nodded, offering a smile that he hoped came off as less weak than it felt. He was still looking forward to having some time off - hopefully a bit more cultural, even if they failed to visit monuments, they’d be in the vicinity of them a little better than how they were just lazing around their apartment, or in past months only just going to college classes enough to not drop out. It was obvious from the jump that Paxton wasn’t going to want to participate in any cultural experiences, so far the only thing Paxton had expressed interest in was drinking absinthe in Paris and then going to Amsterdam, which he always said with such a conspiracatory smile and tone that made it obvious what he planned on doing there. 

Monday came quickly. The breakup had happened on a Saturday; it had been designated as their last date before Josh went off to Europe, but he supposed that doubled up as an exactly time to break up and not have to deal with the fallout. Especially given he was broken up with for ‘being gay’ which he still wasn’t quite ready to agree with. Either way they left, bleary eyed and fueled on coffee, with backpacks containing everything they thought they needed for the coming months weighing on their shoulders. 

Check-ins went smoothly as anything could, the heavy walking shoes that both Paxton and Josh were wearing took an antisocial amount of time to take off and put through the metal detector, but they weren’t about to waste valuable backpack weight on shoes. They both passed through okay, grateful that the early morning start meant that relatively few people were at the airport anyway, and no one that seemed all too suspicious to either of them was around. 

The advantage of a red eye flight was how easy it was to sleep on the way over, especially with a little bit of aid from the complimentary alcohol aboard. And with that, they were in Europe before they even knew, the flight attendants making sure everyone was awake before the plane landed, seats upright, and tray tables tucked in. 

“Ready to go?” Paxton asked.   
“Uh huh,” Josh nodded, still exhausted, jet lag setting in before they were even off the plane. 

Paxton had the aisle seat, and made sure to toss Josh’s backpack down before he grabbed his own, making the trip out of the airport relatively painless. They hadn’t brought any real luggage, didn’t want things weighing them down unnecessarily. 

“Well, I guess we’re doing this,” Josh said, as they stepped out onto the streets of Paris.   
Paxton laughed and nodded. “We sure are. Let’s hope this trip is a good one.”


End file.
